One thing that surprised me was the failure of PBS to mention was the run on toilet paper nationwide when Carson cracked a joke on a shortage that the Government had on obtaining single ply toilet paper.

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I was surprised that wasn't there either. I remember thinking that it would most assuredly be mentioned. It's something that I recall to this day and, in fact, was telling somebody about just recently. Besides being a funny bit that had unexpected consequences, It was a great study in the dumbassedness of humanity in general, IMO.

I learned a lot of things I didn't know about Carson. Very interesting.

Btw, his mother was a *****.

R.I.P. Jonny Carson

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I know! Wasn't she just awful? I wanted to slap her every time I saw her smug face. She didn't like boys and she made it crystal clear, all along the way, that the daughter was the one she cherished to the absolute exclusion of the boys.

I just finished watching. Outstanding. I wanted more and wanted to stay with it.

We didn't get much information on Johnny's personal life in real time. I felt for him.

In fact, what I personally asked Johnny was whether he had heard from The Enquirer when he challenged them to sue him for calling them liars -*in a story about hiss marriage to Joanna being on the rocks. He said, "Obliquely. I think they're going to sue."

Now I realize that as Bill Maher said, he was ruthless. If you blew an appearance you'd never be seen again. I remember when Bert Convey made the huge mistake of eating an Eskimo Pie during a break. Johnny was furious with him...and he was never seen again.

Maybe Carson's mother had a bad mother too. Then we can blame all her moral failings on her mother.

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I don't think anybody is blaming all his failings on his mother. But fact number one is that his mother was an awful mother. I am pretty sure that did account for SOME of his subsequent behavior.

I don't think people who didn't have an awful mother understand that whatever preceeded her to make her that way is not really an issue to a child who is being abused in one way or another. You are just trying to survive and all you know is that SHE is a ***** and you don't really care why until you can look back through many years of maturity to analyze that.

I really liked this. It was very interesting and I loved being able to see all the old clips. I wish I were older so I could have watched more of Carson before he went off the air.

tk

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Carson was an icon and an institution. Kids used to beg to stay up to see "at least the monologue". We'd sneak down to listen from the stairs and try to laugh quietly (I don't think we ever succeeded at that). I remember what a big deal it was that Tiny Tim was going to get married on the Tonight Show, and my folks hated Tiny Tim, but we got to stay up to watch it because it was an "event" (the likes of which we can't imagine in todays 24-hour news cycle, with hundreds of channels).

As the years went on and his guest hosts became more frequent, The Tonight Show lost some of it's cachet. People would watch when Carson was on, but turn it off if a guest host was on. But Johnny was so big that they kept giving him more and more weeks off, because that's what it took to keep him.

Dave puts on a show. Leno cracks wise. But Johnny - he made you feel like him and some friends were just sitting around chatting in your living room and you were part of it. Nobody else, before or since, really gets that "invited into your home" part as well as Johnny did.

Finally got around to it today. I agree it was not one-sided at all. And that's what made it so interesting.

As far as his Mom goes, he obviously was a product of her upbringing. From his distance with his sons to his extra-martial affairs. And yes, she might have been a ***** but her mother was probably one too.

It's amazing the power and influence he had among comedians. Although I feel his decision of whether they were worthy of the chair was a bit abuse of power.

I saw this too. Thought it was good. Lots of praise for him for his contributions to television and the late night talk show genre. And rightly so. But they didn't really sugar coat some of the personal issues he had.

Oct 1, 1962, fifty years ago Monday, was the premiere of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

As an aside, I finally watched this last week (which is the only reason I know about the 50 anniv). Very well made documentary. I only watched it because there was nothing else to watch, waiting for the new fall season to start. And I'm glad I did, as it was more than worth the time. I'd forgotten how many "culturally historic" moments came from that show.

I didn't realize emphysema from smoking was what ended up killing him.

You had Ed McMahon say that Johnny was a mean drunk who would pick a fight with everyone in the place until Ed dragged him away.. Then when Johnny was interviewed on 60 Minutes HE said he was a mean drunk, "Ask Ed."